Saturday, August 05, 2017

Agra: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Allahabd High Court by an NGO urging directions for the UP government, the civil aviation ministry at the Centre and Airport Authority of India to expedite construction of a civil enclave in the existing airport in Agra.
The PIL was filed by Civil Society of Agra through its secretary Anil Sharma. It stated that In February 2014, the UP government signed a memorandum of understanding with the AAI for building a civil enclave for Agra airport. For this purpose, around 23 hectare of land was identified at Balhera, Dhanauli and Abhaypur villages. However, over the past three years, only 14 hectare of land has been acquired as government had released insufficient funds.
The petitioner further claimed that the state government has already spent Rs 88 crore in acquiring the 14 acres of land but has not taken any interest despite several representations and reminders to release the remaining Rs 64 crore for completion of the land acquisition process.
Pointing out that lakhs of tourists visit Agra and Mathura every year, Sharma urged the court to pass direction to the state government to release the remaining fund as well as hand over of the land to the AAI for development of the civil enclave.
04/08/17 Aditya Dev/Times of India